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27 produkter

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27 produkter

Towards Reconciliation
Understanding Violence and the sacred after René Girard
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2020
292 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
A compelling analysis of the connection between violence and the sacred, using René Girard's mimetic theory to point the way towards Christian reconciliation.Why do humans sacralise the causes for which they fight? Who will decipher for us the enigma of 'sacred violence'?Paul Gifford shows that the culture theorist and fundamental anthropologist René Girard has in fact decoded the obscurely 'foundational' complicity between violence and the sacred, showing why it is everybody's problem and the Problem of Everybody.René Girard's mimetic theory, especially his neglected writings on biblical texts, can be read as an anthropological argument continuous with Darwin, shedding formidable new light to a vast array of dark and knotted things: from the functioning of the world's oldest temple to today's terrorist violence, from the Cross of Christ to the Good Friday Agreement, such insights illuminate superbly ('from below') the ways of creation, revelation, redemption - which is to say, ultimately, the Christian enterprise and vocation of Reconciliation.Here is a novel and exciting resource for scanning the hidden 'sacrificial' logic that still secretly shapes cultural, social, and political life today. Girard puts us ahead of the game in the key dialogues required if we are to avoid autogenerated apocalypses of human violence in the world of tomorrow.
African Christianity
Its Public Role
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 1998
288 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
"This is by far the most informative book about contemporary African Christianity around; nobody could have written a study as richly detailed and as informed by real insider knowledge as he has done. . . . It will be the most significant study of African Christianity to appear at a time when its importance for Africa is becoming ever more widely recognized." —J. D. Y. Peel"A sophisticated political and social analysis of the various Christian groups is allied to a most original, consistent exploration of their different theological positions and thinking. . . . An interesting, important critical assessment of the extent to which the churches are playing a major role in the emergence of a civil society. . . . Gifford's overall analysis and his four case studies are so fresh and so important that . . . they cry out for immediate publication." —Richard GrayPaul Gifford analyzes African Christianity in the mid-1990s, against the background of the continent's current social, economic, and political circumstances. Gifford employs concepts taken from political economy to shed light on the current dynamics of African churches and churchgoers and assesses their different contributions to political developments since 1989. He also evaluates the churches' role in promoting a civil society in Africa. Four case studies—Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, and Cameroon—cover all strands of Christianity: Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, and Independent. These detailed analyses of the state of the churches in each country also suggest more general patterns operating widely across sub-Saharan Africa.
Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition
Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2004
274 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
"Gifford knows his subject totally, has vast and wide-ranging sympathy for his subjects (though without being uncritical), and explores these themes with admirable intelligence. This book is simply the best thing out there." —Philip Jenkins"Gifford's is an uncompromising, hard-nosed study . . . [N]o one can again look at the subject without at least a respectful nod in his direction." —Lamin SannehIn Ghana's New Christianity, Paul Gifford considers the explosion of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on one place: Greater Accra, Ghana. Gifford examines every dimension of these new churches and mega-churches, including their discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, finances, and clientele. Ghana's New Christianity sets religious devotion into Ghana's political and economic situation and focuses on how fervent belief in success and wealth in the here and now can provide motivation to change in circumstances where it is so easy to despair. No other book brings forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity or offers such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.
2000 Years and Beyond
Faith, Identity and the 'Commmon Era'
AvDavid Archard,Trevor A. Hartm. fl.
Inbunden, Engelska, 2002
757 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved.Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who 'we' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth century signify for hopes of progress? Can post - Enlightment humanism and its notion of human nature survive without faith? If the 'numinous magic global capitalism' is our own giant shadow cast abroad, does that shadow offer hope enough of a communal future? Has the modern, secularized West now outgrown its originating faith matrix? Often controversial and sometimes visionary, these seven new essays ask: how do we tell - and rewrite - the story of the Common Era? Introduced by Paul Gifford, and discussed in a lively dialogic conclusion, they add their distinctive voices to a debate of profound and urgent topicality.
2000 Years and Beyond
Faith, Identity and the 'Commmon Era'
AvDavid Archard,Trevor A. Hartm. fl.
Häftad, Engelska, 2002
367 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved.Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who 'we' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth century signify for hopes of progress? Can post - Enlightment humanism and its notion of human nature survive without faith? If the 'numinous magic global capitalism' is our own giant shadow cast abroad, does that shadow offer hope enough of a communal future? Has the modern, secularized West now outgrown its originating faith matrix? Often controversial and sometimes visionary, these seven new essays ask: how do we tell - and rewrite - the story of the Common Era? Introduced by Paul Gifford, and discussed in a lively dialogic conclusion, they add their distinctive voices to a debate of profound and urgent topicality.
Exporting the American Gospel
Global Christian Fundamentalism
AvSteve Brouwer,Paul Giffordm. fl.
Inbunden, Engelska, 1996
2 487 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Exporting the American Gospel
Global Christian Fundamentalism
AvSteve Brouwer,Paul Giffordm. fl.
Häftad, Engelska, 1996
757 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Del 2 - Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion
Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia
AvPaul Gifford
Inbunden, Engelska, 1993
1 710 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This study examines the role of Christianity in Liberia under the corrupt rule of Samuel K. Doe (1980-90). Paul Gifford illustrates the relationship between mainline, evangelical, new Pentecostal and independent churches, and notes the strengths and weaknesses of each. He shows that, in general, Liberian Christianity - far from being a force for justice and human advancement - diverted attention from the causes of Liberia's ills, left change to God's miraculous intervention, encouraged obedience and acceptance of the status quo, and thus served to entrench Doe's power. In so doing, this Christianity, devised in the USA and promoted largely by American missionaries, helped to further the regional economic and political objectives of the US government which was committed to supporting Doe. The Lberian example is used to illustrate the difference between the kinds of Christianity to be found in Africa and in Latin America.
Del 2 - Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion
Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia
AvPaul Gifford,Duncan Forresterm. fl.
Häftad, Engelska, 2002
644 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This study examines the role of Christianity in Liberia under the corrupt rule of Samuel K. Doe (1980-90). Paul Gifford illustrates the relationship between mainline, evangelical, new Pentecostal and independent churches, and notes the strengths and weaknesses of each. He shows that, in general, Liberian Christianity - far from being a force for justice and human advancement - diverted attention from the causes of Liberia's ills, left change to God's miraculous intervention, encouraged obedience and acceptance of the status quo, and thus served to entrench Doe's power. In so doing, this Christianity, devised in the USA and promoted largely by American missionaries, helped to further the regional economic and political objectives of the US government which was committed to supporting Doe. The Lberian example is used to illustrate the difference between the kinds of Christianity to be found in Africa and in Latin America.
Del 58 - Cambridge Studies in French
Reading Paul Valéry
Universe in Mind
AvPaul Gifford,Brian Stimpson
Inbunden, Engelska, 1999
1 905 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Paul Valéry's work is a unique odyssey in the universe of ideas and mental forms. The most recently acknowledged - and the most private - of the masters of modernity, Valéry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historicans and social anthropologists, always concerned to explore the potential and limits of the human mind. Originally published in 1999, the present volume of essays by internationally recognised scholars offered the first comprehensive account of Valéry's work in English or French. It provided a series of readings bringing into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valéry called his 'unitary mind in a thousand pieces', and offered perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings. This book moved forward the frontiers of our understanding of Valéry's work, and substantially altered the way in which he was perceived.
Del 58 - Cambridge Studies in French
Reading Paul Valéry
Universe in Mind
AvPaul Gifford,Brian Stimpson
Häftad, Engelska, 2011
787 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Paul Valéry's work is a unique odyssey in the universe of ideas and mental forms. The most recently acknowledged - and the most private - of the masters of modernity, Valéry is perhaps the most radical and wide-ranging. He navigates freely within the mental galaxies known to scientists, poets, literary theorists, musicians, philosophers, historicans and social anthropologists, always concerned to explore the potential and limits of the human mind. Originally published in 1999, the present volume of essays by internationally recognised scholars offered the first comprehensive account of Valéry's work in English or French. It provided a series of readings bringing into focus the deeper coherence that animates what Valéry called his 'unitary mind in a thousand pieces', and offered perspectives on the immense range of his experimental and fragmentary writings. This book moved forward the frontiers of our understanding of Valéry's work, and substantially altered the way in which he was perceived.
Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature
Deciphering Eros
AvPaul Gifford
Inbunden, Engelska, 2006
2 595 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
European literature and theory of the twentieth century have been intensely preoccupied with questions of 'Desire', whereas 'love' has increasingly represented a fractured and strange, if not actually suspect, proposal: this is a prime symptom of an age of deep cultural mutation and uncertainty. Paul Gifford's book allows this considerable contemporary phenomenon to be observed steadily and whole, with strategic understanding of its origins, nature and meaning. Gifford paints a clear and coherent picture of the evolution of erotic ideas and their imaginary and formal expressions in modern French writing. He first retraces the formative matrix of French tradition by engaging with five classic sources: Plato's Symposium, the Song of Songs, the myth of Genesis, the tension between Greek Eros and Christian Agape and the repercussions of Nietzsche's declaration of the 'death of God'. Modern variations on these perennial problematics are then pursued in ten chapters devoted to Proust, Valéry, Claudel, Breton, Bataille, Duras, Barthes, Irigarary, Emmanuel, Kristeva. Literary and theoretical perspectives are perfectly blended in his study of these attempts at 'deciphering Eros'. The book will appeal not only to students of French literature, but to all those interested in the cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.
2000 Years and Beyond
Faith, Identity and the ''Commmon Era''
AvPaul Gifford,Nigel Rapportm. fl.
E-bok
Engelska, 2003
424 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved.Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who ''we'' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth century signify for hopes of progress? Can post - Enlightment humanism and its notion of human nature survive without faith? If the ''numinous magic global capitalism'' is our own giant shadow cast abroad, does that shadow offer hope enough of a communal future? Has the modern, secularized West now outgrown its originating faith matrix? Often controversial and sometimes visionary, these seven new essays ask: how do we tell - and rewrite - the story of the Common Era? Introduced by Paul Gifford, and discussed in a lively dialogic conclusion, they add their distinctive voices to a debate of profound and urgent topicality.
2000 Years and Beyond
Faith, Identity and the ''Commmon Era''
AvPaul Gifford,Nigel Rapportm. fl.
E-bok
PDF, Engelska, 2003
424 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved.Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who ''we'' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth century signify for hopes of progress? Can post - Enlightment humanism and its notion of human nature survive without faith? If the ''numinous magic global capitalism'' is our own giant shadow cast abroad, does that shadow offer hope enough of a communal future? Has the modern, secularized West now outgrown its originating faith matrix? Often controversial and sometimes visionary, these seven new essays ask: how do we tell - and rewrite - the story of the Common Era? Introduced by Paul Gifford, and discussed in a lively dialogic conclusion, they add their distinctive voices to a debate of profound and urgent topicality.
Exporting the American Gospel
Global Christian Fundamentalism
AvSusan D. Rose,Paul Giffordm. fl.
E-bok
PDF, Engelska, 2013
881 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Exporting the American Gospel
Global Christian Fundamentalism
AvSusan D. Rose,Paul Giffordm. fl.
E-bok
Engelska, 2013
881 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature
Deciphering Eros
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2016
605 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
European literature and theory of the twentieth century have been intensely preoccupied with questions of 'Desire', whereas 'love' has increasingly represented a fractured and strange, if not actually suspect, proposal: this is a prime symptom of an age of deep cultural mutation and uncertainty. Paul Gifford's book allows this considerable contemporary phenomenon to be observed steadily and whole, with strategic understanding of its origins, nature and meaning. Gifford paints a clear and coherent picture of the evolution of erotic ideas and their imaginary and formal expressions in modern French writing. He first retraces the formative matrix of French tradition by engaging with five classic sources: Plato's Symposium, the Song of Songs, the myth of Genesis, the tension between Greek Eros and Christian Agape and the repercussions of Nietzsche's declaration of the 'death of God'. Modern variations on these perennial problematics are then pursued in ten chapters devoted to Proust, Valéry, Claudel, Breton, Bataille, Duras, Barthes, Irigarary, Emmanuel, Kristeva. Literary and theoretical perspectives are perfectly blended in his study of these attempts at 'deciphering Eros'. The book will appeal not only to students of French literature, but to all those interested in the cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.
Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature
Deciphering Eros
AvPaul Gifford
E-bok
Engelska, 2016
696 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
European literature and theory of the twentieth century have been intensely preoccupied with questions of ''Desire'', whereas ''love'' has increasingly represented a fractured and strange, if not actually suspect, proposal: this is a prime symptom of an age of deep cultural mutation and uncertainty. Paul Gifford''s book allows this considerable contemporary phenomenon to be observed steadily and whole, with strategic understanding of its origins, nature and meaning. Gifford paints a clear and coherent picture of the evolution of erotic ideas and their imaginary and formal expressions in modern French writing. He first retraces the formative matrix of French tradition by engaging with five classic sources: Plato''s Symposium, the Song of Songs, the myth of Genesis, the tension between Greek Eros and Christian Agape and the repercussions of Nietzsche''s declaration of the ''death of God''. Modern variations on these perennial problematics are then pursued in ten chapters devoted to Proust, ValÃ©ry, Claudel, Breton, Bataille, Duras, Barthes, Irigarary, Emmanuel, Kristeva. Literary and theoretical perspectives are perfectly blended in his study of these attempts at ''deciphering Eros''. The book will appeal not only to students of French literature, but to all those interested in the cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.
Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature
Deciphering Eros
AvPaul Gifford
E-bok
PDF, Engelska, 2016
702 kr
Läs direkt efter köp
European literature and theory of the twentieth century have been intensely preoccupied with questions of ''Desire'', whereas ''love'' has increasingly represented a fractured and strange, if not actually suspect, proposal: this is a prime symptom of an age of deep cultural mutation and uncertainty. Paul Gifford''s book allows this considerable contemporary phenomenon to be observed steadily and whole, with strategic understanding of its origins, nature and meaning. Gifford paints a clear and coherent picture of the evolution of erotic ideas and their imaginary and formal expressions in modern French writing. He first retraces the formative matrix of French tradition by engaging with five classic sources: Plato''s Symposium, the Song of Songs, the myth of Genesis, the tension between Greek Eros and Christian Agape and the repercussions of Nietzsche''s declaration of the ''death of God''. Modern variations on these perennial problematics are then pursued in ten chapters devoted to Proust, ValÃ©ry, Claudel, Breton, Bataille, Duras, Barthes, Irigarary, Emmanuel, Kristeva. Literary and theoretical perspectives are perfectly blended in his study of these attempts at ''deciphering Eros''. The book will appeal not only to students of French literature, but to all those interested in the cultural upheavals of the twentieth century.
Can We Survive Our Origins?
Readings in René Girard's Theory of Violence and the Sacred
AvPierpaolo Antonello,Paul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2015
634 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Are religions intrinsically violent (as is strenuously argued by the ‘new atheists’)? Or, as Girard argues, have they been functionally rational instruments developed to manage and cope with the intrinsically violent runaway dynamic that characterizes human social organization in all periods of human history? Is violence decreasing in this time of secular modernity post-Christendom (as argued by Steven Pinker and others)? Or are we, rather, at increased and even apocalyptic risk from our enhanced powers of action and our decreased socio-symbolic protections? Rene Girard’s mimetic theory has been slowly but progressively recognized as one of the most striking breakthrough contributions to twentieth-century critical thinking in fundamental anthropology: in particular for its power to model and explain violent sacralities, ancient and modern. The present volume sets this power of explanation in an evolutionary and Darwinian frame. It asks: How far do cultural mechanisms of controlling violence, which allowed humankind to cross the threshold of hominization—i.e., to survive and develop in its evolutionary emergence—still represent today a default setting that threatens to destroy us? Can we transcend them and escape their field of gravity? Should we look to—or should we look beyond—Darwinian survival? What—and where (if anywhere)—is salvation?
How We Became Human
Mimetic Theory and the Science of Evolutionary Origins
AvPierpaolo Antonello,Paul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2015
753 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
From his groundbreaking Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, René Girard’s mimetic theory is presented as elucidating “the origins of culture.” He posits that archaic religion (or “the sacred”), particularly in its dynamics of sacrifice and ritual, is a neglected and major key to unlocking the enigma of “how we became human.” French philosopher of science Michel Serres states that Girard’s theory provides a Darwinian theory of culture because it “proposes a dynamic, shows an evolution and gives a universal explanation.” This major claim has, however, remained underscrutinized by scholars working on Girard’s theory, and it is mostly overlooked within the natural and social sciences. Joining disciplinary worlds, this book aims to explore this ambitious claim, invoking viewpoints as diverse as evolutionary culture theory, cultural anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, ethology, and philosophy. The contributors provide major evidence in favor of Girard’s hypothesis. Equally, Girard’s theory is presented as having the potential to become for the human and social sciences something akin to the integrating framework that present-day biological science owes to Darwin—something compatible with it and complementary to it in accounting for the still remarkably little understood phenomenon of human emergence.
Plight of Western Religion
The Eclipse of the Other-Worldly
AvPaul Gifford
Inbunden, Engelska, 2019
392 kr
Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar
'Religion' can be used to mean all kinds of things, but a substantive definition––based on the premise of superhuman powers––can clarify much. It allows us to attempt to differentiate religion from culture, ethnicity, morality and politics. This definition of religion necessarily implies a perception of reality. Until recent centuries in the West, and in most cultures still, the ordinary, natural and immediate way of understanding and experiencing reality was in terms of otherworldly or spiritual forces. However, a cognitive shift has taken place through the rise of science and its subsequent technological application. This new consciousness has not disproved the existence of spiritual forces, but has led to the marginalisation of the other-worldly, which even Western churches seem to accept. They persist, but increasingly as pressure groups promoting humanist values. Claims of 'American exceptionalism' in this regard are misleading. Obama's religion, Evangelical support for Trump, and the mega-church message of success in the capitalist system can all be cultural and political phenomena. This eclipsing of the other-worldly constitutes a watershed in human history, with profound consequences not just for religious institutions but for our entire world order.
Del 289 - Faux Titre
La création en acte
Devenir de la critique génétique
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Franska, 2007
1 860 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
À l’aube de notre jeune XXIe siècle, la critique génétique se trouve enfin en mesure de faire le point sur son passé et de tracer les grandes lignes de son avenir : qu’est-elle susceptible d’apporter à d’autres approches critiques telles que la sociologie, l’intertextualité et l’herméneutique ? Comment modifie-t-elle notre compréhension des œuvres littéraires, ainsi que notre conception du texte ? Pourquoi, trente ans après son émergence dans le paysage critique, continue-t-elle à susciter la méfiance, voire l’hostilité dans les milieux universitaires ? Quelles seront ses pistes d’investigation et problématiques futures ? Quelles nouvelles voies les technologies comme l’hypertexte et les hypermédias ouvrent-elles en matière d’édition et de pédagogie ? Voilà quelques-unes des questions que se sont posées les auteurs du présent volume, spécialistes en critique génétique et en critique littéraire de part et d’autre de la Manche et de l’Atlantique.Illustrant l’activité courante du généticien et soulevant d’importantes questions théoriques, cet ouvrage se veut bilan de la discipline autant que panorama de ses possibles. Dans cette double perspective, il se propose d’évaluer l’état présent des études génétiques, de déterminer leur spécificité parmi les différentes approches critiques du texte, ainsi que d’apprécier l’aptitude de la génétique à réorienter, voire à renouveler la critique littéraire. Résolument interdisciplinaires, les travaux présentés examinent les grands débats qui ont eu lieu à l’intérieur de la discipline et à ses frontières, comparent des cas de genèse s’échelonnant du XVIe au XXe siècle, et tentent d’évaluer les acquis de la critique génétique et son impact sur la théorie et la pratique littéraires.
Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2015
389 kr
Tillfälligt slut
Is African Christianity a religious marketplace now dominated by only two big players, the Catholic Church and Pentecostals? There is an important if largely unremarked diversity within African Christianity; on the one hand, an enchanted Christianity that views the world as pervaded by spiritual forces, and on the other a disenchanted Christianity that discounts them. An enchanted Christian sees his glorious destiny threatened by witches, spirits, and ancestral curses. Churches catering for this worldview lay bare the workings of this spirit world, and this enchanted imagination, along with the prosperity gospel, and emphasis on the pastor's 'anointing', are the principal characteristics of much African Pentecostalism. Gifford argues that the enchanted religious imagination militates against development by encouraging fear and distrust, diminishing human responsibility and agency, and downplaying functional rationality. The prosperity gospel of 'covenant wealth from tithes and offerings' is the antithesis of Weber's Protestant ethic; and to magnify the person of the pastor is to perpetuate the curse of the 'Big Man'.Official Catholicism, totally disenchanted and long associated with schools and hospitals, is now involved in development, from microfinance to election monitoring, from conflict resolution to human rights. This 'NGO-ization of Catholicism', made almost inevitable by funding from secular donors like the EU and UN, even if defended theologically, comes at the price of failing to address the 'religious' needs of so many African Christians.
Ghana's New Christianity
Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy
AvPaul Gifford
Häftad, Engelska, 2004
221 kr
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In sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades there has been an explosion of Christianity. This book sets out to identify its particular character, focusing on a particular place: Greater Accra, the capital of Ghana. Paul Gifford examines a wide range of Accra's new churches, giving priority to mega-churches. Every dimension -- discourse, theological vision, worship, rituals, music, media involvement, use of the Bible, conventions, finances, clientele -- is analysed. Gifford argues that this Christianity is not otherworldly: its emphasis is on success, achievement, wealth here and now. Yet within this general orientation there is diversity. At one end of the spectrum are churches that, building on the traditional religious imagination, see demonic forces everywhere blocking personal success. In the churches the key factor is the special 'man of God' who is understood to have the 'anointing' to conquer these forces, to 'reverse the curse' that is holding the believer back. At the other end is a strain of this new Christianity that discounts spiritual forces and sees victory resulting from the believer's own education and skills, and from transforming culture.The book also joins the debate over the role of this Christianity in modernizing economic and political structures. It sets the scene by describing Ghana's political and economic situation in the decades when these churches were proliferating, and outlines the current debate on the reasons for Africa's economic plight. It is argued that although focusing on success and wealth can provide motivation in circumstances where it is so easy to despair, the pervasive emphasis on miracles militates against any natural fostering of a new work ethic. As for their political role, some churches are easily co-opted; others challenge the government, but for 'spiritual' reasons that provide little incentive to grapple with issues of governance; by contrast, Gifford finds one important church encouraging change of the entire political culture. No other book has set forth the complex nature of Africa's new Christianity with such clarity, or offered such a searching analysis of its power to tackle Africa's predicament.
Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya
AvPaul Gifford
Inbunden, Engelska, 2009
627 kr
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Since independence in 1963, Kenya has been a classic personalised patronage state, run by a corrupt elite for its own benefit, as became tragically evident in December 2007's stolen election and its aftermath. Kenya is also said to be 80 percent Christian. Under the bland label 'Kenyan Christianity', several different overlapping realities can be distinguished, and it is these which Gifford investigates in this book, relating them to the country's politics and public life. The politically engaged form that challenged the dysfunctional one-party state in the early 1990s is given due prominence, but Gifford contends that today the mainline churches, both Catholic and Protestant, are marked less by such political engagement than by their involvement in development, in which foreign missionaries and global networks play a huge role. The theology of Kenya's mainline churches is consciously focused on African culture, as a non-negotiable foundation, and the Catholic church has an additional agenda - to Africanise its religious congregations.Kenya is also noted for its rich variety of African indigenous Churches, all originating in a defence of Kenyan cultures, while in recent decades countless Pentecostal churches have also sprung up. They range from affluent middle class churches to refuges for the poor, but nearly all are characterised by a stress on power, success, achievement and prosperity that prioritises modernity rather than traditional culture. Gifford discusses their deployment of the media, crusades, organisation, theology and use of the Bible, and above all the economics that has made this phenomenon possible. Yet another distinct form is an enchanted Christianity in which demons or spiritual forces are deemed responsible for almost everything. All these Christianities relate to Kenya's situation, so all are thoroughly contextualised, but equally almost all are thoroughly domesticated into Kenya's socio-political structures, thus reinforcing rather than challenging the country's dysfunctional political system.
Del 18 - Cultural Identity Studies
Europe and its Others
Essays on Interperception and Identity
AvPaul Gifford,Tessa Hauswedell
Häftad, Engelska, 2010
676 kr
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This volume presents selected proceedings of a conference on ‘Europe and its Others’ held at St Andrews University in 2007. It seeks to explore the collective and cultural persona implied by Europe’s richly diverse gaze upon, and dealings with, non-Europeans, encountered or represented in the course of travel, trade, conquest or cultural exchange – and their gaze-in-return questioning ‘Europe’.The play of defining ‘interperceptions’ is followed here in a series of essays covering a broad spectrum of imaginative writings, film, history and culture theory produced in many European languages.Bringing together specialists in all these fields, this volume scans the unseen processes that the early twenty-first century has come to discern in identity formation: the role of gender as a paradigmatic signifier of Otherness; the narrating of history and memory; the role of border zones and marginalities; the hidden grammar of hostility and violence; the bonding effected by shared values and sacralities; public and private spaces of representation; the Other without and the otherness within.What emerges from this two-way play of reflection is a sense of the tissue of awareness of the cultural identity that is ‘Europe’; and, perhaps, a renewed openness to Europe’s Others.

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Paul Gifford – författare

Towards Reconciliation

African Christianity

Ghana's New Christianity, New Edition

2000 Years and Beyond

2000 Years and Beyond

Exporting the American Gospel

Exporting the American Gospel

Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia

Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia

Reading Paul Valéry

Reading Paul Valéry

Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature

2000 Years and Beyond

2000 Years and Beyond

Exporting the American Gospel

Exporting the American Gospel

Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature

Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature

Love, Desire and Transcendence in French Literature

Can We Survive Our Origins?

How We Became Human

Plight of Western Religion

La création en acte

Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa

Ghana's New Christianity

Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya

Europe and its Others

Mina sidor

Mina sidor

Hjälp

Hjälp

Om Bokus

Om Bokus

Populärt

Populärt

Inspiration

Inspiration